Smart Phones Will Not Mean the End of Handhelds

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://brighthand.com/article/Will_Smart_Phones_Replace_Handhelds">http://brighthand.com/article/Will_Smart_Phones_Replace_Handhelds</a><br /><br />"I wish I had a dollar for every article I've read lately on how handhelds are doomed because they are going to be replaced by smart phones. Saying that makes no sense to me, because, at its root, a smart phone is a handheld."<br /><br />I think Ed Hardy is talking about semantics, as he later gets into. "Why we've decided to call handhelds with mobile phone capabilities "smart phones" isn't particularly clear to me. And any time you want to start an argument, try to get a couple of people to agree on what a smart phone is. Just about everyone has a different idea of where cellular-wireless handhelds leave off and where smart phones begin."<br /><br />I think handhelds as we know them, typically disconnected devices and with no voice capabilities will be replaced with converged devices and those we typically call smart phones will dominate. Smart phones are devices that are more phone than PDA, though there will, for the foreseeable future, be room for larger PDA-like devices that have phones built in. I think we'll see more compact devices like the Motorola MPx rather than the large screens seen in the XDA formfactor.

[Chris Spera]

Smart phones are devices that are more phone than PDA, though there will, for the foreseeable future, be room for larger PDA-like devices that have phones built in. I think we'll see more compact devices like the Motorola MPx rather than the large screens seen in the XDA formfactor.

I agree with you, Ed, provided that the MPx is a device that has long term staying power. The honeymoon with my i700 is over. Its a good device...for a non-power user. It simply doesn't have enough power, punch or expandability for my purposes. The only way I could TRULY find this out was to live with it for 3 or so months...

I'm pretty certain the same will have to happen with the MPx. Power users are going to have to get past the honeymoon period before realistic day-to-day performance commentary will filter through to the masses. While the device looks really good, I wonder if its smaller screen is going to make any sort of difference in the long run? Will the dual hinged design give us any problems? What will battery life be like when more than 1 (read 2-3) of its radios are active? Will I be able to use BT (for say, GPS) and be on the phone at the same time, without having to worry about the phone's battery dieing on me after I say, "hello?" Unfortunately, only time will tell...

BUT, I agree with you. I think that converged devices, similar to the MPx, will eventually win out over non-connected devices.

Kind Regards,


Christopher Spera

[heliod]

Well, this discussion is not alone. I also wish I had a dollar for every time I read that Tablet PCs will kill PDAs... so will someone decide if the PDA will be killed by the smaller or the bigger device?

I agree with the view that in the future will be replaced by converged devices, and that the Smartphone, with the smaller format and the more phone-like operation will prevail, but I would say that this will be mostly on account of the simple traditional mobile phone that we mostly see today. I fully believe that mostly the Smartphone will substitute a tradicional phone, and the converged-PDA will substitute the traditional PDA, and probably keep its bigger touch-screen and expandability options.

I guess that this whole conceptual mess was caused by the fact that in the beginning MS decided to call their OS for Smartphone as "Smartphone 2002", tying the OS to the format factor. Now that they have separated the OS name from the device name, it is already quite difficult to deal with the confusion that was created during this first year.

[heliod]

I agree with you, Ed, provided that the MPx is a device that has long term staying power. The honeymoon with my i700 is over. Its a good device...for a non-power user. It simply doesn't have enough power, punch or expandability for my purposes. The only way I could TRULY find this out was to live with it for 3 or so months...


Well, I must say that, after 4 months of use, I am very happy with the power in my iMate (/XDA2/MDA2 or whatever you guys want to call it). I use it as a phone 24 hours a day, and as a PDA during the whole day. My use of Bluetooth is for about 3-4 hours a day (except when I want to use the GPS, which increases the number of hours) and includes my headset for phone calls when driving and Bluetooth connection with my computer at work. And even this way, I get to the end of the day with 35-40% of my battery still available.

The only problem is still Wifi, which drains the power quite faster.

BTW, regarding the use of GPS, I solved that by buying a car charger, so I can use my Bluetooth GPS with the iMate as much as I want.

NOTE: I must say that when I visited Seattle last week for the Summit, the poor GSM coverage of the city caused my iMate to use much more battery than it uses regularly here in Israel. This is caused by the way these devices (mobile phones) are built: they change the power usage according to the strength of the signal, so the lowest the signal, the more power the device will consume. So in this case, I blame the local networks in Seattle, not the device.

[Ryan Joseph]

I think non-connected devices are doomed, but that's all. I doubt that even the large screen XDA style PPC Phones will be phased out. I use my PPC Phone for Internet access as well as phone calls. I use PDA functions more than phone functions, so I'd prefer a larger screen. This along with its high price tag is what will keep me away from the MPx.

I know a lot of people who would agree with me. A "normal" shaped PPC with phone capibilities is better than a phone with PDA capibilities. :wink:

[heliod]

I think non-connected devices are doomed, but that's all. I doubt that even the large screen XDA style PPC Phones will be phased out. I use my PPC Phone for Internet access as well as phone calls. I use PDA functions more than phone functions, so I'd prefer a larger screen. This along with its high price tag is what will keep me away from the MPx.

I know a lot of people who would agree with me. A "normal" shaped PPC with phone capibilities is better than a phone with PDA capibilities. :wink:

You've already got a follower :D

[allenalb]

i gotta say, i like my mpx200 and all, but other than syncing to outlook and playing bust'em it wouldn't last a day as my main pda.. if you saw my today screen you'd be surprised my iPaq even starts up...

i will say this, the user interface on an ms smartphone is GREAT, makes me wish pocket pc's had a numeric keypad...

[Dennis]

However, devices like this won't satisfy everyone. There's no way there's ever going to be a smart phone with a 4-inch or larger screen. It would simply be too big to hold up to your ear to talk.

That is a bizarre comment:
I am quite surprized that Ed Hardy isn't aware that most Phone PDA (to the notable exception of Palm OS' Treo 600 or Tungsten W) are Bluetooth enabled, and that you don't need to hold the device to your ear to talk!!

It will be even more so in the future as even PalmOne announced a revised Bluettoth-enabled version of its Treo 600 for next Falls!

Unfortunately, by forgetting that Bluetooth allows a 'bigger' device to be used as a phone makes Ed' reasonning not totally valid...

[Michel]

Slightly offtopic:
Could someone explain the difference between Windows Mobile/PPC Phone Edition/Smartphone??

I have my sights on the upcoming MPx, and having owned an Axim previously I'd like to know what the MPx will be running that allows it to "be a phone" while at the same time it has full "traditional" PPC functionality?

[Sven Johannsen]

Other than the obvious size differences, the biggest distinction between MS Smartphone and PPC Phone Edition is in the physical user interface. The PPCPE has a touch screen and uses that for interacting with the device predominantely. The Smartphone does not have a touch screen and the user interacts purely through the key pad, and hardware buttons. There are 'soft keys' like most cell phones have, that vary the function of specific buttons depending on context, but it is still buttons.

[allenalb]

Windows Mobile/PPC Phone Edition/Smartphone are all based on Windows CE. PPC Phone edition is the same as Windows Mobile with some extra extensions to allow phone features (except that i'm not sure if they ever updated PPC phone edition to WM2003).

Windows Mobile for Smartphone is a stripped down version, excluding things like pocket word and excel, optimized for slower devices with less memory and with the phone features at the forefront as opposed to being an addon to the OS (because having to soft reset your phone sucks, and it would be hard to navigate the menus with just a thumbpad and a couple of other buttons).

hope this helps...

[allenalb]

D'oh! someone beat me to the punch...

[felixdd]

I think Ed Hardy is talking about semantics, as he later gets into. "Why we've decided to call handhelds with mobile phone capabilities "smart phones" isn't particularly clear to me.

That was the first thing that came to my mind when I read his editorial! AFAIK, Smartphones are (defined at least by MS's OS name) devices without a touch screen, depend on input mainly through T9 and a numerical keypad, and runs the smartphone 2003 OS. PPCPE and other PDA-phones, however, have touch screens and other PDA-only goodies.

I thought that smartphones are more like, "phones with a big of PDA functionality", while PDA-phones are "PDAs with phone function."

Why he went and called the Treo 600 a "smartphone" is beyond me. Of course, if his definition of smartphone, "...is really just a PDA with a mobile phone built into it." then of course it won't mean the end of a PDA -- it already is a PDA.

However, that definition is flawed, because a MPx200 -- primarily a phone -- would not be called a smartphone. What would it be then?

I do agree though, that everyone has a different conception of what a "smartphone" is...Ed (Hardy) seems to think that it means any merge of PDA and phone, while I go by the form factor defined by MS, then extend it to other platforms like the Treo, etc.

I wanted to say all this on BH...but was afraid of backlashed and being called a flame-bait, so I kept my yap shut. But also take note -- I've got nothing against Hardy! :)

[Michel]

Thanks for those [quick!] responses :)

PPC Phone edition is the same as Windows Mobile with some extra extensions to allow phone features (except that i'm not sure if they ever updated PPC phone edition to WM2003).

Does anyone know the situation with this update?
If I'm not mistaken WM2003 is more stable than the previous version, which is quite important in a device that acts as a phone as well.

[powder2000]

I think non-connected devices are doomed, but that's all. I doubt that even the large screen XDA style PPC Phones will be phased out. I use my PPC Phone for Internet access as well as phone calls. I use PDA functions more than phone functions, so I'd prefer a larger screen. This along with its high price tag is what will keep me away from the MPx.

I know a lot of people who would agree with me. A "normal" shaped PPC with phone capibilities is better than a phone with PDA capibilities. :wink:

Amen to that! I don't want a smaller screen and I am 28. I'm sure as I get older, a 3.5-4 inch screen will be what I want to use. I am connected by WiFi and use it about 3 hours a day. I just don't use a phone that much. If I did, I would either try something like the xda or, if I didn't like the combo, could use a ppc-bluetooth phone combo. Smaller screens do not answer any problems, keep em big.

[possmann]

I do not see the death of the PDA at all. the PDA will need to have connection capabilties and the attraction of the PDA is the screen size. People are not going to want to read an ebook on a smartphone device - the screen is just way to small.

Phones are just that - phones. I'm a fan of the Smartphone (looking at getting an i-mate) and a fan of the PPC - they both have their unique use and while much of that does overlap there are things that I want to do only on my PPC mainly because of the form factor of the screen.

[David Johnston]

"I wish I had a dollar for every article I've read lately on how handhelds are doomed because they are going to be replaced by smart phones. Saying that makes no sense to me, because, at its root, a smart phone is a handheld."

Isn't it a bit like saying, "Cars are doomed - they're gonna be replaced by four-wheeled, road-worthy vehicles"?

[Gremmie]

I think handhelds as we know them, typically disconnected devices and with no voice capabilities will be replaced with converged devices and those we typically call smart phones will dominate. Smart phones are devices that are more phone than PDA, though there will, for the foreseeable future, be room for larger PDA-like devices that have phones built in. I think we'll see more compact devices like the Motorola MPx rather than the large screens seen in the XDA formfactor.

Basically, you think smart phones are going to replace handhelds? :D

It was a very poor article by Ed, I've sat through many philosophy classes and have heard semantic debates, but this would make Hagel cry.

[gohtor]

I agree with you. The platforms are different but they do "compete for the same dollar."

I really don't think smartphones will mean the end of handhelds but they certainly will take a percentage of all potential handheld buyers away since a the smartphone could potentially suit their needs more as a mobile device.

[yslee]

Ok, so what the heck is a smartphone? My personal definition is that it's a phone with some PIM capabilities. Siemens SX-1, Nokia's 6600, the MS Smartphones, fall under this category for me.

Also to offer a counterpoint, I absolutely hate the XDA type form factor. I want a keyboard, and something that doesn't look terribly goofy when put next to the ear, like what Ed says in his article. So yes, bring on the Motorola MPx and the Benq P50!

[Ed Hansberry]

Basically, you think smart phones are going to replace handhelds? :D
Uhm.. yes! :mrgreen: I don't think disconnected PDAs the size of even an iPAQ 2200 will be around in a few years in North America or Europe assuming that prices of connected devices comes down from current stratospheric prices and the new MPx will be about as big as they come going forward.

I am, of course, only talking about consumer/business class devices. Forget industrial devices from companies like Symbol. Entirely different market. IMHO, the $99 Zire is going to go extinct replaced by $100 low end syncable smartphone devices and the $300-400 disconnected handheld will be replaced by $200-$300 pda/phones. Call 'em smartphones if you want - I think that is a totally acceptable term. Both the Treo 600 and MPx are smart phones in my book.

Just my 2 cents. I know people in the industry that disagree with this assessment and that disconnected PDAs (non-phone devices) will be around for years to come.

[Mike Dimmick]

PPC Phone edition is the same as Windows Mobile with some extra extensions to allow phone features (except that i'm not sure if they ever updated PPC phone edition to WM2003).

Does anyone know the situation with this update?
If I'm not mistaken WM2003 is more stable than the previous version, which is quite important in a device that acts as a phone as well.

Already used one. I had an Orange SPV-M1000 in the office this week which runs WM2003 Pocket PC Phone Edition. Apparently we'll be getting one of these to trial on a more permanent basis (I work as a developer for a vertical-market software vendor).